Alfie’s parents have had strong support from pro-life advocates, disability rights advocates and others who are concerned about Alder Hey Children’s Hospital pulling the little boy’s life support without his parents’ permission.

According to news reports in British media, around two hundred protesters gathered outside Alder Hey Children’s Hospital to support Alfie Evans today. they gathered outside and held signs and chanted in support of Alfie’s life. Video from the scene shows some people attempting to run into the hospital but police guard stop them from entering.

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights essentially means that a judge’s decision allowing Alder Hey Children’s Hospital to remove Alfie’s life support over his parents’ wishes will move forward — potentially as soon as this week. The expectation is that once Alfie’s life support is removed he will probably die — instead of givng him time to perhaps receive experimental treatments to help his very rare neurological disorder.

His parents have been fighting to get appropriate Medical Care and treatment at a different hospital and they say that one in Rome Italy has offered to take him to provide care as well as looking at potential treatment that could possibly save his life.

A ECHR spokesman said on Monday: “The European court of human rights has rejected the application submitted by the family of Alfie Evans as inadmissible.”

This was the second time Alfie’s parents lost at the European Court. This time they argued that Alfie is being wrongly ‘detained’ at Alder Hey and made a habeas corpus application. A writ of habeas corpus – Latin for ‘you may have the body’ – is a legal maneuver which requires a court to examine the legality of a detention.

Alfie suffers from a rare neurological condition that is destroying his body and doctors at the Children’s Hospital say his condition is too far gone and so they want to withdraw his life support which could kill him. His parents say they have a hospital in Rome, Italy ready to take him to provide appropriate medical care and treatment that the Children’s Hospital is denying and possible treatment that could overcome his neurological disorder. But the Children’s Hospital refuses to allowAlfie’s parents to take him to Italy.

After meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican, Alfie Evans’ father says the Vatican hospital is “ready to take Alfie immediately” and provide the care and treatment Alder Hey Children’s Hospital refuses to provide.

Tom Evans posted on the Alfie Army Facebook page to describe his time in Rome – where he met the Pope and the president of the Bambino Gesú hospital.

“The president of Bambino Gesú called me in for a meeting. She wants to take Alfie as soon as tomorrow and will do everything for him,” Evans explained. “Even if we find a diagnosis they will continue to search for a cure. She even wanted to come and meet him herself and still does. She was such a lovely woman and said they will do everything they can for Alfie as they would with any other.

“Pray hard this is Alfie’s step to his desperately needed transfer,” he said.

Evans also described what led to his trip to meet with Pope Francis.

He said: “Wow, what an emotionally exciting blessed 12 hours. I jumped on the plane at 11 last night [Tuesday] to Athens, got there for 4:50am, then took off at 6:05 to Rome to meet the Pope. Straight after interviews with various countries’ media – a lot of them. I spoke to the director of Vatican News, then was alerted the Pope had sent an urgent request to Bambino to take Alfie as soon as possible.”

Evans added: “Our child is sick, but not dying and does not deserve to die. He is not terminally ill nor diagnosed. We have been trying our best to find out his condition to treat or manage it.”

“I am now here in front of Your Holiness to plea for asylum, our hospitals in the UK do not want to give disabled children the chance of life and instead the hospitals in the UK are now assisting death in children. Alfie is not dying, so we do not want to take him out the way the hospital wish us to. We see life and potential in our son and we want to bring him here to Italy, at Bambino Gesú, where we know he is safe and he will not be euthanised.”